With this brief sketch of his life, let us turn to Lanier's works,
and first to those in prose. At the head of the list comes `Tiger-lilies',
a novel written within three weeks and published immediately thereafter,
in 1867. Under the figure of "a strange, enormous, terrible flower,"
the seed of which he hopes may perish beyond resurrection, the author pictures
the horror of war in general and of the Civil War in particular.
An entertaining love-story runs through the book, the plot of which
space does not allow me to detail. In execution the novel has grave defects:
it lacks unity; the characters talk as learnedly as Lanier afterward
wrote of music; and at times, as in the oft-quoted picture of the war,*1*
the style is grandiloquent; owing to which blemishes the author
wisely discouraged its republication. But, in spite of these defects,
the book has one very strongly put scene,*2* the interview
between Smallin and his deserter brother, and several beautiful passages*3*
that distinctly proclaim the high-souled poet.
--
*1* `Tiger-lilies', p. 115 ff.
*2* `Tiger-lilies', p. 149 ff.
*3* That on "love" (p. 26) is quoted later.
--
Lanier's next publication, `Florida: Its Scenery, Climate, and History',
was written by commission of the Atlantic Coast Line, and appeared in 1876.
To use the author's own epithet, `Florida' is "a spiritualized guide-book".
Exclusive of the 1877 volume of `Poems', Lanier's next original work
was `The Science of English Verse', which in lecture-form
was delivered to the students of the Johns Hopkins in the winter of 1879
and was published in 1880. According to competent critics, the book gives
as searching an investigation of the science of verse on its formal side
as is to be had in any language. Since the treatise is so evidently
an epoch-making one, I regret that the technicality of the subject forbids
my attempting in this connection even a brief exposition* of its principles.
I can say only that Lanier treats verse in the terms of music;
that, according to the promise of the preface, he gives
"an account of the true relations of music and verse"; and that in so doing
he has given us the best working theory for English verse
from Caedmon to Tennyson. This is a high estimate, but it is by no means
so high as that of the lamented poet-professor, Edmund Rowland Sill,
who said of `The Science of English Verse', "It is the only work
that has ever made any approach to a rational view of the subject.
Nor are the standard ones overlooked in making this assertion."**
--
* This may be found in Professor Tolman's article,
cited in the `Bibliography'.
** Quoted by Tolman.
--
Lanier's second course of lectures at the Johns Hopkins University,
delivered in the winter and spring of 1881, was published in 1883
under the title, `The English Novel and the Principles of Its Development'.*
According to the author's statement, the purpose of the book
is "first, to inquire what is the special relation of the novel
to the modern man, by virtue of which it has become a paramount literary form;
and, secondly, to illustrate this abstract inquiry, when completed,
by some concrete readings in the greatest of modern English novelists" (p. 4).
Addressing himself to the former, Lanier attempts to prove (1) that our time,
when compared with that of Aeschylus, shows an "enormous growth
in the personality of man" (p. 5); (2) that what we moderns
call Physical Science, Music, and the Novel, all had their origin at
practically the same time, about the middle of the seventeenth century (p. 9);
and (3) "that the increase of personalities thus going on has brought about
such complexities of relation that the older forms of expression
were inadequate to them; and that the resulting necessity
has developed the wonderfully free and elastic form of the modern novel
out of the more rigid Greek drama, through the transition form
of the Elizabethan drama" (p. 10). In fulfilment of his second purpose,
the author gives a detailed study of several of the novels of George Eliot,
whom he takes to be the greatest modern English novelist. Even this
brief synopsis of the book must indicate its broad and stimulating character,
in which respect it is a worthy successor of `The Science of English Verse'.
Despite the limitations induced by failing life, which necessitated
the cutting down of the course of lectures from twenty to twelve,**
I know of few more life-giving books; and I venture to assert
that it cannot safely be overlooked by any careful student of the subject.
--
* Mrs. Lanier informs me that `The English Novel' will soon
be issued in an amended form and with a new sub-title,
`Studies in the Development of Personality', which indicates precisely
what Mr. Lanier intended to attempt, and relieves the book
of its seeming incompleteness as to scope.
** `Spann'.
--
Among other prose works I may mention Lanier's early extravaganza,
`Three Waterfalls'; `Bob', a happy account of a pet mocking-bird,
worthy of being placed beside Dr. Brown's `Rab and his Friends';
his books for boys: `Froissart', `King Arthur', `Mabinogion', and `Percy',
which have had, as they deserve, a large sale; and his posthumous
`From Bacon to Beethoven', a highly instructive essay on music.